NDN Blog

Post has good piece on web video

Very much worth a read.

Drilling into political bedrock

Two weeks ago a CNN poll put the President's approval rating at 29%, the lowest of his Presidency, and one of the lowest in recorded Presidential history.  29% for a two term President means 40% of those who voted for him twice believe he is not doing a good job.  A remarkable feat by any measure. 

That 29% came before a two week period of truly terrible developments for the Administration - the mistreatment of our veterans at Walter Reed, the overzealous and perhaps illegal use of National Security Letters by the FBI, the conviction of Scooter Libby, the new Plame testimony, continued violence in Iraq, the scandal of the Rovian-led firing of 8 US Attorneys and the resignation of senior Army officials and the Chief of Staff at Justice.  Who and what is next? Rove, Gonzales, Nicholson? Is there a Bush Administration without these guys?

Wherever these next steps take us they will take us further into the inner of the inner core of the architects and enablers of the Bush era. The political chief, the chief counsel, the former RNC Chair.  Just as the President's support has drilled into his bedrock of support, these new scandals are drilling into personnel bedrock, a place where no one ever thought we could go.  But here we are, and the ending of Bushism and its leaders seems to much closer than ever before.

Story Creep

If the White House thinks that throwing Attorney General Albert Gonzalez under the proverbial bus will be enough to end the US Attorney's scandal, they had better thing again, because it is clear that this scandal goes beyond the constituion-hating Bush consigliore all the way to Karl Rove and maybe the President himself.  The NYT reported today, and the email below proves (thanks TPM Muckraker) that Karl Rove was deeply involved in the discussion over firing US Attorneys, a long time before Tony Snow or anyone else in the White House had previously admitted.  (Note: 'Judge' is a nickname of Alberto Gonzalez who served as a State Court Judge in Texas)

What does all this mean?  It means the White House was full of it when they said this was all Harriet Mier's idea, in the hopes that Mier's, who resigned in January, could be the White House fall-guy.  Clearly this goes to the highest levels and was being batted around between Rove, then White House Counsel Gonzalez and who knows who else.  And everyone involved lied about it to Congress and the press.  The forecast is for Tony Snow's memory to remain hazy and for the White House's story to keep "evolving."

And for your moment of zen, here's the unflattering Rove pic the Times ran with the story...

Rep. Harman Calls For Better Light Bulbs

Beginning with an opening line that our own Peter Leyden would love - "As California-and Australia and Europe-goes, so (should) go the nation. That's why it's time for the country to phase out inefficient energy-consuming light-bulbs" - California Congresswoman Jane Harman announced a new bill today that would require light bulbs made or used in the US to meet a higher energy efficiency standard, dramatically reducing energy demands from that most-used of appliances, the lamp. 

Her post in the Huffington Post nicely sums up arguements that should be familiar to all of us.  Standard incandescent lights waste energy and don't last as long as compact flourescents.  And thanks to Rep. Harman, now Congress will have a chance to encourage American producers and consumers to make the switch-over.  As Rep. Harman herself says:

The old joke revolves around how many people it takes to change a light bulb. The answer is: 218 members of Congress, 51 Senators and one President. 

Amateur Hour at the White House

At NDN our tech team works hard to try and keep our email free of spam, and they do a damn decent job - thanks, Gillian and Ben.  The one drawback to our spam filter is that it blocks outgoing emails that contain offensive words.  So when I accidentally slip the kind of word that gets you detention in high school into an email, that email will be deleted.  That's ok, that's why I use my personal email account outside of work, and quote "Midnight Run" to my hearts content. 

Our friends at CREW have found a much more nefarious use of personal email accounts though.  It turns out that Karl Rove's Deputy Scott Jennings has been using a personal email -linked to a domain owned by the RNC no less - to send emails about the purged US Attorneys.  It isn't the first time Rove's office has pulled this kind of thing either.  Susan Ralston, another Rove Deputy, used to use a personal email account to get in touch with her old boss, Jack Abramoff.  The problem with all this personal email is that it may well amount to a purposful and illegal evasion of the Presidential Records Act, if Congress, a Special Prosecutor (fingers crossed), etc don't know about your personal email account, they can't read the damaging contents, right? 

The deceptive and maybe illegal practices of the Bush/Rove team are a a disgrace to the institution of the Presidency, and yet another sign of the moral degradation of the conservative movement. 

Pew: 59% of US Latinos use Text Messaging, More Than Go Online Via PC

Here is the latest Pew Study - that just went public today - on Latino’s online…. A key quote:

“Mexicans, the largest national origin group in the U.S. Latino population, are among the least likely to go online: 52% of Latinos of Mexican descent uses the internet. Even when age, income, language, generation, or nativity is held constant, being Mexican is associated with a decreased likelihood of going online.

Some Latinos who do not use the internet are connecting to the communications revolution in a different way – via cell phone. Fully 59% of Latino adults have a cell phone and 49% of Latino cell phone users send and receive text messages on their phone.

Way to go, Joe

Sounds like Joe Biden has had enough...

The "Straight Talk Express" is Back

WAPO has the details.  But does this mean McCain is retiring the Pandering to Extremists Mobile?

Bigger than the US Attorneys Purge Scandal?

Think you've heard every possible sordid development regarding the actions of Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez and the Bush White House.  Think again, because this one may top everything that has been revealed to date.  Murray Wass of the National Journal is reporting that last year, Attorney General Gonzalez advised President Bush to shutdown an internal Justice Department investigation into the warrentless wiretapping program.  Most ethically and legally troubling was the fact that Gonzalez had been told that his actions as White House Counsel and Attorney General would be at the center of the investigation.  The President's response:

Bush personally intervened to sideline the Justice Department probe in April 2006 by taking the unusual step of denying investigators the security clearances necessary for their work.

It is unclear whether the president knew at the time of his decision that the Justice inquiry -- to be conducted by the department's internal ethics watchdog, the Office of Professional Responsibility -- would almost certainly examine the conduct of his attorney general.

Sources familiar with the halted inquiry said that if the probe had been allowed to continue, it would have examined Gonzales's role in authorizing the eavesdropping program while he was White House counsel, as well as his subsequent oversight of the program as attorney general.

Both the White House and Gonzales declined comment on two issues -- whether Gonzales informed Bush that his own conduct was about to be scrutinized, and whether he urged the president to close down the investigation, which had been requested by Democratic members of Congress.  

This investigation by the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility was not looking at the legality of the warrentless wiretapping program, just "allegations of misconduct involving department attorneys that relate to the exercise of their authority to investigate, litigate, or provide legal advice."  In other words, the investigation was honing in on potential misbehavior and ethical and legal violations by Gonzalez.  He knew this and still went to the President to ask him to end the investigation, which he did using what amounted to extraordinary means. 

Now there is one very important question Gonzalez and the President have to answer.  Did Gonzalez tell the President that he was a target of the investigation?  If he did not, he would be guilty of a serious, if not illegal deception.  And if he did, then the President knowingly interfered in a Justice Department investigation to shield his Attorney General.  Either way, somewhere Tricky Dick Nixon must be blushing.

We've heard it. Now let's see it.

During his trip to Latin America, President Bush referred to the hard work of Mariano Can, an indigenous farmer in the Guatemalan highlands who built a thriving business made possible by a loan backed by the U.S., saying: "You have proven that if given a chance, you and hundreds of others can succeed, and that's what we want."

Those comments were probably aimed at a different aspect of policy, but they also apply to the over-arching goal of his trip: immigration reform.

His comments aren't surprising. They really never are, because the President has continuously been a strong (at least in terms of what his position allows) advocate for comprehensive immigration reform. Yet these comments were directed towards a people whose continent needs, for so many reasons, to believe the words of the President of the United States. And they couldn't have come at a more important time for a President who needs to be believed.

After all, speaking to Congress versus speaking to leaders and citizens of Latin American countries about immigration reform seems somewhat different. The level of understanding is somewhat different, especially when the President of Mexico told President Bush that he has relatives who have probably handled the food he eats.

So the President returns from Latin America. He has, as always, said some very compassionate things about the idea of immigration, what it means and what its realities are. He returns from a place where he found inspiration to do the right thing everywhere he looked. But now he has to deliver. He has as many of the pieces in place that he could ask for. The rest he'll have to fight for.

The time is ripe for meetings with Senate Majority Leader Reid, Senator Kennedy and Speaker Pelosi. The time is also ripe to step up his lobbying efforts if he is going to hit his unofficial deadline of August for an immigration overhaul to get through Congress.

We've seen the word legacy attached to immigration reform so many times. We know the President wants to get this done and we've seen what he'll do to get what he wants. If he goes to work to pass comprehensive immigration reform, he will at least be able to add that to his compassionate conservative resume.

We want to believe in that compassion, Mr. President; and so do our neighbors to the South.

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